‘Tis the season of the Great Pumpkin!
Pumpkin Passion
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Learning through Play and Experience, Uncategorized 3 Comments
Whole Child Development
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Learning through Play and Experience, Uncategorized 3 Comments
by notjustcute Filed Under: Snack Time, Uncategorized 3 Comments
My boys and I came home from a beautiful fall hike to find the perfect surprise on our doorstep! Friends had dropped by a kit for making simple (and delicious) pumpkin cookies!
by notjustcute Filed Under: Learning through Play and Experience, Snack Time, Uncategorized 1 Comment
If you’re looking for some ways to make this week memorable for your little ones, try serving up some pumpkin! You may want to use pumpkin as an ingredient (as in Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread) or use the pumpkin as the dish! Here are five ways to serve up some fun, originally published on Halloween of last year!
by notjustcute Filed Under: Create, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience 3 Comments
For the truly brave preschool teacher or parent, looking for a creative art project, I present bubble painting!! This can be a messy project, but very unique and with many opportunities for developmental growth. Directions first, benefits later.
by notjustcute Filed Under: Celebrate!, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience, Snack Time Leave a Comment
I mentioned before that a pumpkin’s greatness is in part due to its hollowness. We’ve talked about floating pumpkins, pumpkin drums, and of course, Jack-o-lanterns, but perhaps best of all, a pumpkin can be hollowed out to create a bowl! You can use a cleaned out pumpkin to hold pre-made food, such as soups or a casserole, or you can actually cook in the pumpkin shell as well! Here are five festive ways to turn your gourd into a gourmet dish!
by notjustcute Filed Under: Celebrate!, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience, Music and Movement 4 Comments
As you and your children are exploring the properties of pumpkins, you discover that the fact that they are hollow is one of their best characteristics. You find this out as you dig out their seeds and make Jack-o-lanterns. You realize it’s importance as you send even enormous pumpkins floating on water. Another great way to utilize the hollow property of a pumpkin is to use it as a drum!
by notjustcute Filed Under: Building Readers, Celebrate!, Create, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience, Positive Guidance and Social Skills Leave a Comment
Big Pumpkin by Erica Silverman is a fantastic Halloween book! (In fact, it just might be my favorite!) It’s written in a pattern style with consecutive characters (a witch, a ghost, a vampire, and a mummy) each larger than the first, approaching the same problem – a giant pumpkin, stuck on the vine- in the same way. There is repetitive text and a definite pattern, which preschoolers really respond to, and which also builds pre-literacy skills. In the end, it is not the larger characters, but a tiny bat who, through cooperation, comes up with a solution. A great social skills lesson! [Read more…]
by notjustcute Filed Under: Celebrate!, Create, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience 1 Comment
This, my friends, is a work of art. And a fantastic display geometric/mathematical prowess. And it’s the sweetest pumpkin face I’ve seen in a while because it was made by one of my darling boys!
by notjustcute Filed Under: Celebrate!, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience 4 Comments
Sink or float is a classic preschool activity. You gather an assortment of items and have the children guess which will sink or float, and then test their hypotheses. (It made me laugh not too long ago when David Letterman added a gag segment called “Will it Float” with a huge pool of water and random items for the members of the audience to make predictions about. I’m guessing he’d been to his little boy’s preschool the day he came up with that one!)
by notjustcute Filed Under: Celebrate!, Get Outside, Learning through Play and Experience Leave a Comment
Children love to be sneaky….or sometimes just to think that they’re being sneaky. Here’s a play on a sneaky old guessing game that is perfect for a group of youngsters in the fall!
This is a variation of “Button, Button, Who Has the Button”. Have the children sit in a circle. Have one child stand in the center and close her eyes. Hand a mini pumpkin to one child and have him hide it behind his back. Have all the other children sneakily pretend to hide a pumpkin by putting their hands behind their backs also. When everyone’s ready, the child in the center opens her eyes and the whole group says, “Pumpkin, Pumpkin, Who Has the Pumpkin?” The center child guesses and if it’s an incorrect guess, that child lifts up his empty hands to show there was no pumpkin. At this point, you can have the center child just keep guessing, or you – or the child she chose- can give a clue about the person who does have the pumpkin. “A girl has the pumpkin,” or “This person has on a striped shirt.” It all depends on your group and whether or not they’re ready to give or use clues. Once the pumpkin is discovered, choose another person to be in the center and another to hide the pumpkin and start again. Try to give everyone a turn! And just enjoy playing together!
In early education, there is too much distance between what we know and what we do. I bridge the gaps that exist between academia, decision-makers, educators, and parents so that together, we can improve the quality of early education while also respecting and protecting the childhood experience.
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